Billionaire retail tycoon Leslie Wexner on Wednesday told a US House panel that he had visited convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island, but claimed to have had no knowledge about the disgraced financier’s sex trafficking operation at the time.
According to Wexner’s deposition to congressional investigators, which was viewed by Bloombergthe billionaire claimed to have visited Epstein’s island once with his wife and children for a “few hours”.
However, Wexner, in his statement, asserted that he “never witnessed nor had any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity” and “never saw or heard about Epstein being in the company of a minor girl”.
The billionaire also stated before the panel that he had neither been “a participant nor co-conspirator” in any of Epstein’s crimes.
Wexner’s response comes after law enforcement officials working on Epstein’s 2019 prosecution identified the 88-year-old billionaire as one of 10 “co-conspirators”, according to an email released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in December.
That said, the billionaire had not been charged in the case, with the House Oversight Committee opting to subpoena him instead.
At the time, Wexner’s representative had said that the billionaire would “cooperate fully with any governmental inquiry into Epstein, just as he did regarding the US attorney’s investigation into Epstein in which Mr. Wexner was told that he was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect.”
Wexner, currently worth over $10 billion, was the former longtime chief executive officer of Columbus, Ohio-based L Brands Inc., which over the years owned stores of brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, and Abercrombie & Fitch.
(This is a developing story. Check back for updates)
